High-Protein, Low-Carb Corn Developed

UC Riverside biochemistry professor, Daniel Gallie and his team have developed a technology that doubles the protein and oil content of corn, while lowering the starch content. Maize flowers develop in pairs. Normally one of the flowers aborts before pollination. Attempting to prevent the abortion of the second flower, the researchers introduced a gene to enable the production of the plant hormone, cytokinin, which helps prevent organ death. Both flowers remained and were pollinated, but to the surprise of the team, the flowers fused to form one normal sized kernel with two embryos.

In a corn kernel, most of the protein and oil are found in the embryo and the endosperm contains mostly starch. Doubling the embryo, essentially doubles the protein content, while reducing the starch. This new technology could provide valuable nutrition in areas where diets lack protein and will also be useful in areas where corn is used as feed for livestock.

Links:

• High-protein, low-carb corn developed from Food USA


• Email Story UC Riverside Researchers Develop Low-Carb Corn With Enhanced Protein and Oil a University of California, Riverside newsrelease


• UC Riverside Researchers Develop Low-carb Corn With Enhanced Protein And Oil from Science Daily

Posted by Eric La Fountaine at 12:54 PM on October 25, 2005

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